36 weeks 1 day

No 'progress' as of last Monday. Going to walk on the treadmill and get an exercise ball to gently bounce on to help gravity. I'd love an early baby!

Kindergarden- a little late

Wyatt has started Kindergarden. (months ago in fact) but he loves it. His designated school is a ways away so we are lucky to qualify for bussing. Each morning at 8 he gets picked up and then returned at 12:15. He rides the bus with our little neighbor who is repeating Kindergarden this year because of being so young last year.

The first couple days I drove him to make sure he felt comfortable, and to meet his teacher- whom I love! And he's been loving it ever since. His only complaint is the bus ride home which is quite long. We've made a deal that I pick him up once a week- Fridays., so he has something to look forward to at the beginning of the weekend.

It's fun to have been in schools as a teacher and to send your own child to school and to be totally happy with where they are and how they are spending their time. We feel very blessed that Wyatt is such a sweet heart, and loves his time at school. I heard from a friend who works in the other Kindergarden class at the school that they just have to figure out how to expand his interests beyond the art center :)

Helper

I thought that having Wyatt gone every morning would be hard on this little one, but I really think she loves the one on one time. I can't say that I always love having her under foot all day, but she is getting to be a great little helper. We still sped time together, but are actually accomplishing things at he same time.

Halloween

I'm not good at buying new costumes every year, so my poor kids were dragons again this year. I actually borrowed a princess dress for Isla, but she wanted to be just like Wyatt.

We were invited for a spooky dinner and games at the Pratt's for fhe. My kids are lucky to have friends with such cool parents. It was a fun night.

Halloween day Wyatt had a party at school, and some moms with little ones met at the church nursery for snacks and play time. In the afternoon while we waited for Brett to get home, I took the kids to the mall for some warm (mommy friendly) trick or treating. I hadn't thought of it until I saw some posts from other parents on Facebook. It took us under an hour to get through the whole mall, and they came home with more candy than they needed.

Brett took them out in the evening. It was cold and wet and Isla lasted 15 minutes before wanting to come home and help me hand out candy.

What do you do with the candy? It is way too much for anyone to eat, but I know from buying my own to hand out that it's expensive stuff to just discard of. The only positive thing is they ten to open something have a bite and then are interested in something else, so they aren't really eating much.

Play dates

These two girls are going to be such good friends. The older brothers used to play regularly before Kindergarden got in the way, and we spent a lot of fun summer days with the Pratt's. Now that school has started, Lindsay came up with the FABULOUS idea of a play date a week while the boys are at school, and we alternate locations to get a little break on the week off. It has been wonderful, and very good for Isla to learn how to play with someone her age that we don't let her push around, the way she does with Wyatt.

Potty trained

Isla is 2, but after a few days of UTI symptoms and no real illness, I decided it was time to get her out of the diapers. Wyatt was much easier to train, so after a week of accidents, including peeing on the neighbors trampoline I was ready to give up for a while. Then, in true Isla style, right when I was ready to give up, she 'got' it, and we've been accident free since. Hurray!! I'm all about only changing one bum at a time, so are ready to just change tiny bums from now on.

I had to bribe Isla to do #2 on the potty, and so each time she went I'd let her paint my toe nails. Funny what will work sometimes.

Pregnancy

I have never been very good at allowing myself to be photographed during my previous pregnancies, but I was encouraged this time around by my good friend Sheri to take more pictures and I'm really glad that I have been. I have about 8 weeks left and it feels like I'm waiting to blog about this big event coming up that I haven't updated anything else in my life. I need to be better especially since I want to document the life of this baby and my family once it does arrive.

23+ weeks

18 weeks

18 week baby and belly. Just for Sheri!

Princess party

Isla was invited to her very first birthday party! It was a princess party. The little girls got dressed up and had their hair, make up and nails done. So cute. Isla sat very well at each station and looked beautiful after!!

Best friends

My kids truly are the best of friends. I feel so lucky that they are so good to each other and play so well. They are always thinking of the other and making sure they are included. I hope it continues.

Dirty kids

Saw these two VERY dirty kids at the park today. Can't imagine who they belong to....

Saturday in spring!

Brett convinced me to stay outside today with the kids and enjoy the sun rather than clean my house. I'm so glad I did! What a beautiful day! We played with sidewalk chalk, ate our lunch picnic style on the deck, and as an extra special treat we brought Kirby out in the yard to enjoy the sun too.

Easter

I always feel like a pretty fantastic parent a couple times a year. Easter is one of those times. My kids are getting to that prime age of really being surprised and really believing all the 'fibs' we tell them. I really wish we had a video camera sometimes.
We went out to Killam to celebrate Easter with Brett's extended family and got home in time to have dessert with mine. It was a beautiful day! I just hope in the next few years my kids will understand more of the true significance of the season.

Mobile app

Well I've been MIA in the blogging world for a couple months... I can't think of much to update either- dry spell for excitement in the Fixsen household. Sorry to my loyal readers who are wondering if we are alive. We are! I hope that this mobile blogging will help improve my consistency. Doesn't hurt to try.
Here are some springy pics of my beauties!! Backyard ladybugs!!

Skiing.

Some history: I love to snowboard. I haven't been in a few years because of babies and such, but when I get to go I am always reminded of how much i love it. My brother LIVES to snowboard. He is insanely good too, and partly insane. (every time I see him he is complaining of a sore bone of one kind or another) Anyway, when I thought of taking Wyatt skiing/snowboarding I knew I wanted my brother there. I figured his love and enthusiasm for the sport would rub off on my less than adventuresome little man.

The PERFECT opportunity came this past weekend. Brett is part of a social club at work where they are given the chance to buy movie tickets cheep, pay less for work Christmas parties etc. and I got this email at least a month earlier about a Suncor Family Ski night at Sunridge. It was $5/ticket for members and that included the pass, rentals as well as a hot dog or hamburger and a drink. I figured that even if I had to force Wyatt down one run that it would be worth $5.

I emailed my brother and invited him, his girlfriend and her daughter who is the same age as Wyatt, and also my sister and her family. We had a good turn out. Sadly, Isla was sick, Brett ended up backing out (which I found out later was to watch a football game... he didn't think Wyatt would even go down) but my brother in law Chris brought Jude, and Kevin, Nancy and Dahlya were there.

We had the BEST time. My sister in law Jaima had told me this great idea about bringing a hula hoop. You put the hoop over the skier and then the parent just walks down the hill holding the back and able to steer and control the speed of the skier. It was so fun, and we had so many comments from other parents with young skiers about what a great idea it was.

We arrived and started skiing by 6, and we left at 8:45. We had a break for a snack and I totally thought that once we had warmed up that Wyatt would just want to go home, but we headed back out and enjoyed the rest of the night. It was perfect weather, it snowed before and while we were there so it was fresh snow. I really don't know that I've had as much fun skiing as I did with my buddy, and I didn't even snowboard.

At the end of the night Wyatt was going down the bunny hill by himself, getting on and off the magic carpet by himself, and we even met up with an instructor who helped him on the rope tow and taught him how to turn. I really would not have believed it if I hadn't have been there.

Jude skied as well, and seemed to have a fun time. Dahlya decided to try snowboarding and was really good. I can't wait to go again.

I was so proud of him, and you could tell he was very proud of himself too.

Winter Retreat

My calling at church is to work with a group of young ladies called Laurels. They are 16-17 years old and amazing! They intimidated me a LOT when I was first called, but now they are just like great friends. I love that they trust me to tell me about the boys they are kissing, and they take me under their wings and help me with my hair etc. etc. It has been great getting to know them. I also have the pleasure of working with the BEST YW president ever. She is just amazing with all the girls, knows what's going on with each and every one of them and is the best example to me and to them. I feel very blessed.

This past weekend we went on a Winter Retreat out to the Strathcona Wilderness Center. It was so fun to hang out and be silly, play games and stay up late like when I was a Laurel. It doesn't feel that long ago since I was 17, but this weekend really showed me how lame I am, and how old I'm getting. It was still such a blast though.

One of our girls had mono and couldn't come for the night so we had her there in spirit and in paper. :) If you see her randomly in the pictures I post that is why.

Unity games. The theme of the retreat was unity. I think we accomplished our goal.
Can't have a retreat without toilet papering. All done lovingly with nice little notes written on the toilet paper. The only trouble was that the girls used most of the toilet paper in the lodge, so we were concerned that they have to collect some from the bunk rooms if it was needed. (luckily it didn't come to that)
Beautiful girls ready for a wild 24 hours.
My oldest girls. They are so good. They won't be at summer camp because they will have graduated. I'm glad I had this time with them.